European-Middle Eastern War
The European-Middle Eastern War was massive armed conflict fought between the European Commonwealth and the United Arab Coalition for control over the region's oil supplies. The conflict began on April 3rd, 2052 when the European Commonwealth Armed Forces were mobilized and were sent to the Middle East and North Africa taking the Arab Coalition bu surprise. Over the next eight years, the conflict began drawn out and bloody with the Europeans winning by the end but, the oil supplies were drained and the region was left in ruins. Background Throughout the course of the 21st Century, the European Commonwealth largely relied on oil imports from the Middle East in contrast to enegry independent nations like the United States of America and China. In the 2040s, peak oil had been reached and the oil producing nations of the Middle East had no choice but to raise their prices which harmed the European economy and strained them greatly. Europe began to feel the burden as it was harder to buy the expensive oil supplies and the neighboring Soviet Union had also risen prices and began a strict policy of neutrality and heavily regulated their oil shipments. All across Europe, major cities such as London, Paris, Madird and Berlin found stretches of desolate and near-empty highways as their citizens turned to public transport and the prices greatly agitated the European public. In response, the European Commonwealth became more and more agressive with the Middle East and North Africa which forced them to form the United Arab Coalition in response to European agression by 2051. The United Nations had attempted to have the two sides negotiate but, it was useless as boths sides were too hostile to negotiate and the member states of each union pulled out of the UN resulting in the organization's complete collapse by 2052. With no other diplomatic alternative and the UAC modernizing their military, Europe was on the move and war was inevitable. History Outbreak of Hostilities With no diplomatic attempts left and the other world powers not interviening, war eventually did break out starting on April 3rd, 2052 when the European Commonwealth Armed Forces were mobilized for the first time in their near-century of existance and began to be deployed down into the Middle East. British Field Marshal Cornelius Nottingham of the European Expeditionary Forces had lead his troops down south and launched major offensives into Syria via Turkey after it had fallen to the Europeans by mid-May. In response, other European forces began to pull in and took to the UAC by surprised who were lucky enough to even muster up a decent fighting force and declared war on the UAC by the time Turkey had fallen and Syria and Northern Iraq had fallen as well. Israel had joined in the fight and aligned itself with the European Commonwealth and vise versa and helped establish an offensive line in the region. Northern Africa Campaign In 2052 nearly a month into the war, the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, had revealed that the North African member states of the UAC were sending in troops and supplies to the UAC forces stationed in the Middle East and that the Europeans needed to take out the supply lines if they were to push through into the Arabian Peninsula which was heavily defended. European President Alex Winston eventually appealed to the European High Council and the European Parliament and asked that he be given permission to launch an invasion of North Africa. Both the council and parliament approaved of such actions and so, Operation Sea Lion was launched in May and European troops began landing in Northern Africa first starting with Egypt and Libya with the Sinai Peninsula the first target. When Operation Sea Lion was launched, British ground troops began to land off the coasts of northern Egypt along with their French allies and Italian armored divisions under the cover of Yugoslav and Italian naval fleets. Following the instigation of the European invasion of Egpty, Israeli ground troops began to be sent towards the Sinai Peninsula and overwhelmed the Egyptian forces and half of the peninsula was taken by the time the Egyptians launched a defensive counter-attack. Libya eventually capitulated by to the French and German forces, those European forces were sent east towards Egypt and Cairo was eventually taken by the end of May and the Egpytian President, Mohammad al-Sharaff, abdicated and fled into exile and found refuge in Iran. Towards the end of the year, the slogan "Be Home by Christmas" became a popular slogan as the European public thought the war would end fast but, it was far from it. In July, Syria was a stalemate with both European and Arab forces haven digged trenches and barbed wire and both Syria and Iraq became divided and neither side advanced. Arabian Offensive In February of 2053, the European forces broke through the Arab lines in Saudi Arabia and the UAC defensive lines were broken and this allowed the Europeans to go on the offensive. A multi-pronged offensive was launched in both Saudi Arabia and Jordan and despite heavy casualties occuring with the most infamous being the Battle of Al Jafr where the Europeans suffered D-Day level casualties, the Europeans broke through and began marching down south into Saudi Arabia towards the Saudi and UAC capitol of Riyhad. Saudi armies were sent up north in a defensive positions but, they were being pushed back more and more until they could only protect the capitol and some surrounding areas. In June, Riyhad was under European artillary strikes and bombing runs as DH-250s attacked the city and Saudi jets were shot down left and right. During that time, the holy islamic city of Mecca was left virtually defenseless with only a small Saudi strike force being left to protect the city and so, the European Armies were sent in and layed siege to the city. Mecca fell to the Europeans and Riyhad became more surrounded but that wasn't the problem. Footage of non-muslim European soldiers was shown throughout the world and this lead to an erruption of outrage across the Islamic world as UAC citizens either joined the United Arab Forces or became full-blown jihadists and jihad against the infedels that were present in their lands. All across the world, muslims rioted from Africa to Europe and European muslims defected from their countries and ended up joining the UAC or other Arab terrorist groups. Muslims also rioted in the Soviet Union, the most infamous being in Chechnya, and even in the United States as well. Arab Israelis turned against their home country and its ally as well and this would lead to an increase in combat over the course of the war. On December 23rd, 2053, a nuclear bomb was detonated in Tel Aviv by Palestinian terrorists and the city was destroyed. Nuclear Exchange In the aftermath of Tel Aviv's destruction, Israeli bombers were deployed and flew out to their long-time rival of Iran where they dropped nuclear bombs on Tehran destroying the Iranian capitol city. Europe also responded with force as well with the European Commonwealth Air Force having mobilized their forces and French neutron bombs were dropped on other UAC cities such as Baghdad, Damascus, and Riyad while Iran and Pakistan responded by also dropping nuclear strikes on Middle Eastern/North African cities that were under European occupation such as Cairo, Alexandria, Tabuk and Izmir. Tens of millions were killed in the blasts as mushroom clouds flew over the Middle East horrifying the world and motivating the United States government to instigate Porject Safehouse fearing that a nuclear war could be possible in 2054. That same year, European President Alex Winston managed to contact UAC Chairman Mohammad al-Jameel and the two agreed to stop the exchange by January. The Black Summer The next two years after the Siege of Mecca and the nuclear exchange was a stalemate as both sides tried to recover from the nuclear attacks and there were attempts to withdraw European forces but, most of them failed and they remained stuck in the region. Fighting intensified around 2056 when newly mechanized infantry was deployed on behalf of the Europeans and managed to break through the Saudi lines and lead to two thirds of the country being occupied. In response to the European advancements, the Saudis instigated a scortched earth policy in which Saudi crops and oil wells were burned and destroyed to prevent them from being used by the advancing European armies. The smoke from the burning oil flew up into the skies and began blocking out sunlight and darkening the sky leading to what many called the "Black Summer" as a result. While the Europeans continued to advance, the destruction of crops and oil wells lead to massive food shortages and oil prices to skyrocket even higher and this food shortage forced many European countries to produce food for the European soldiers who were busy fighting in the Middle East as a means of feading them. While this did slow down the European advance, it also harmed the UAC as most of their citizens began to run low on food and riot in response promting many to flee into exile to places like Africa or even sneak into European occupied territories where food was still present. The UAC government was eventually relocated into Dubai after Riyhad's destruction and the Gulf States were sought after by many Middle Eastern refugees. Meanwhile, the British opened up a new front in the war and began to invade Afghanistan in an attempt to put an end to the Arab Coalition and wipe out the last remnants of its leadership. The campaign started out successful and remained that way despite slow progress down the line however, a major problem was that European jets flew into Soviet airspace by accident causing them to be shot down by their MiG-3000s and a no-fly zone was established in Central Asia. Invasion of the Balkans Around 2057, the UAC was desperate to find a way to reclaim lost ground as most of their territory was either under European occupation or was disputed and their armies were spread thin except for one group. This group was later deployed up north into Southern Europe as a last-attempt at pushing out the European forces. The Balkans was left defenseless due to the European armies spread so thin across the region and so, an invasion was launched by the UAC targeting Italy and Greece. This caught the Europeans by surprise and at first, the invasion started out with limited success but, it wasn't long before the advancements were halted but by then, the UAC was dangerously close to European territory. By 2058 however, the invasion was halted and the European Commonwealth was not giving up without a fight as they still had the needed manpower to repeal the Arab forces in Sicily and Greece as well as maintain control over their occupied territories in the Middle East and North Africa. German Army Commander Richard Goldreich was sent back home where he lead German Armored Divisons into Italy where he and his Italian allies managed to repeal the UAC invasion troops and push them back to Sicily. In the Balkans, Yugoslavia began doing air raids over Greece and managed to protect the Greek mainland and prevent it from being overrun. In Northern Africa, UAC naval bases and supply lines were under attack by European forces and Yugoslav troops began to push up north and managed to make it into Greece via occupied Turkey. By 2059, the Arab invasion had failed and all UAC forces withdrew from Sicily and Greece marking the end of the invasion. The Final Campaigns By 2059, the end of the war was finally in sight as the UAC could no longer launch any major offensive after their failed invasion of Southern Europe. After the remnants of the invasion force returned home, the United Arab Forces went into disarray as central command had collapsed and the state armies began fighting guerilla wars against the Europeans. In Afghanistan, the British pushed forward and eventually took the capitol of Kabul and forced the Afghan King to surrender in order to convince the British to withdraw after the disarmament of the Afghan military. Iran stood as one of the last UAC nations to continue fighting and was under heavy European bombardment as a result but, by early 2060, it was over as the UAC Chairman, Mohammad al-Jameel agreed to surrender and met with European Commonwealth President André Cormier in Paris where the treaty was signed and the war came to an end with a European victory. Aftermath Following the signing of the Treaty of Paris, the UAC officially surrendered and the war came to an end. The victory for Europe however was a pyrrhic one as the oil reserves in the region had dried up completely and very little was brought home after the initial withdraw. One month after the treaty was signed, the UAC collapsed as their member states dissolved into quarreling nation states based on ethnic, religious, cultural lines and began fighting with each other. Back home in Europe, the continent began to fall apart to as oil reserves strained the European economy greatly and lead to the rise of extremist militant political parties in Europe as well as the European Wars which ended the European Commonwealth by June of 2060, five months after the collapse and dissolution of the UAC as well as the Middle East and North Africa. Category:Events Category:Wars